Aldebaran in fiction

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Aldebaran (Alpha Tauri) is a large, bright orange star in the constellation Taurus which is frequently mentioned in works of science fiction:

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[edit] Literature

  • Aldebaran is one of several stars mentioned in the Cthulhu Mythos, as somehow relating to the being or place named Hastur.
  • In Joe Haldeman's The Forever War, mankind's first contact with the alien race, later called Taurans, technically occurs near Aldebaran. As the main character explains, ""Aldebaranian" is a little hard to handle, they named the enemy "Tauran"."
  • Frederik Pohl's Narabedla Inc. is partially set on a planet circling Aldebaran. The title being the name of an Earth Corporation run by human agents of the Aldebaran aliens. Narabedla is Aldebaran spelled backward.
  • In the novels of E. E. Smith's Lensman Series Aldebaran's second planet is portrayed as having no native intelligent life, and, being otherwise very Earth-like, attracting large scale human settlement. This yields a vibrant world with a notably hedonistic culture.

[edit] Comics

  • Léo's comics series Aldébaran is set on the Earth-like planet "Aldebaran-4" (or simply "Aldebaran"), circling the star of the same name. The planet is colonised by humans.
  • In the Bucky O'Hare series of comic books and the accompanying TV series, Aldebaran is the name of a planet in a parallel universe, and the home to several anthropomorphic cats who wield magical powers.

[edit] Television

[edit] Games

  • Aldebaran is the name of the star system where the Vasudan Government was moved after the Great War in the FreeSpace 2 computer game.

[edit] Other uses

  • In Tess of the d'Urbervilles, Aldebaran is mentioned in reference to the glow of Tess's jewelry as she sits opposite her new husband Angel.
  • In George Orwell's semi-autobiographical Down and Out in Paris and London, Bozo, a fellow vagrant but sometimes street painter, befriends the narrator and points out Aldebaran in a conversation about his interest in astronomy.
See also: Star names in popular culture#Aldebaran.